Free Republic

In the best of times, the Internal Revenue Service is tough to deal with, and tax season is never fun. But the past few years have seen the IRS lurch from one crisis to another. And things are about to get much worse for millions of taxpayers. In 2021 Congress expanded the reporting requirements of the obscure Form 1099-K. This information-reporting form tracks business transactions done with a credit or debit card or such peer-to-peer services as Venmo and Paypal. Prior to the change, taxpayers received a 1099-K only if they processed more than 200 business transactions, amounting to more...

now-former finance director stole tablet computers and other equipment worth $40 million from the Yale University School of Medicine, and resold them for a profit.Jamie Petrone, 42, on Monday pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return, crimes related to the theft of thousands of electronic devices from her former employer. As director of finance and administration in the Department of Emergency Medicine, Petrone, of Lithia Springs, Georgia, was able to purchase products for her organization without approval if the each order total was less than $10,000. She abused her position...

After a spate of bad publicity over winning a Goliath-versus-David lawsuit, Eric Clapton’s management has announced it does not intend to collect the money owed by a German woman who was sued for putting a bootleg CD of a 1980s Clapton concert up for sale on eBay.The woman had been ordered to pay approximately $4,000 after a judge ruled she had infringed Clapton’s copyright by trying to sell the more than 30-year-old CD, which her late husband had purchased at a department store, for 9.95 euros, or roughly $11.20. The illicit disc was removed from the site after a day...

A Swiss human experimenter, a Hungarian Nazi collaborator, and an Iranian tech tycoon walk into Washington D.C. What do you call them? The absentee owners of the Democrat Party. It’s not a joke. Unfortunately it’s grimly serious. Politico recently reported that the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the leading dark money machine of the Left, had pumped $410 million into Dem 2020 efforts to defeat Trump and Republicans. The Sixteen Thirty Fund had raised a record $390 million that year and half the money came from just 4 donors. While the names of the donors are secret, the article did note the...

One of the most notorious liberal billionaire mega-donors in the United States is reportedly aiding Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, who advocated for more Big Tech censorship. Pierre Omidyar — the founder of eBay — is using his philanthropic organization Luminate to handle “Haugen’s press and government relations in Europe,” according to Politico. In addition, Omidyar’s foundation “last year gave $150,000 to Whistleblower Aid, the nonprofit organization that is providing Haugen’s legal representation and advice.” Recent reporting revealed that Haugen donated to multiple leftist groups and was a member of the team that censored the Hunter Biden laptop story while at...

NEW YORK, NY—Things have changed quite a bit in the world of Dr. Seuss, as six of his works have been pulled from publication, banned from sale on eBay, and eliminated from people’s minds using lobotomies to help fight the threat of racism. To get with the times, though, a new Dr. Seuss book has been released, called The Cat in the Hat (He/Him). “In this new book, using reworked art from Dr. Seuss,” said a letter from Dr. Seuss’s estate, “the Cat in the Hat once again finds the two children home alone and bored. This time he diagnoses...

“EBay scraps ‘canceled’ Dr. Seuss books from site—eBay is barring users from reselling the six Dr. Seuss books that will no longer be printed due to their “racist” imagery…eBay is currently sweeping our marketplace to remove these items,” an eBay spokeswoman told the WSJ,” the New York Post reported this week.The Dr. Seuss books violate eBay’s "offensive material policy," you see. "Listings that promote or glorify hatred, violence, or discrimination aren't allowed," eBay’s automated email explains.Now feast your eyes on these eBay products, a total of 5400 items promoting Che Guevara, whose lifelong obsession was the destruction of the nation...

While sales of most Dr. Seuss books have gone through the roof, if you want a copy of one of the six Suess books that have, after all these years, been deemed racist, you won’t be able to buy them cheap. While you can still get a “collectible” edition of the recently canceled Dr. Seuss book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, you’ll have to shell out at least $300 for it through a third-party vendor on Amazon.But if you happen to have copies of any of the six Seuss books that have been given the...

Online retailer eBay is removing several Dr. Seuss books from its website that are no longer being published. A spokeswoman for the website told the Washington Examiner on Thursday that it would no longer be allowing sellers to list six books that have been deemed by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the company that preserves Theodor Seuss "Ted" Geisel's legacy, as containing racially insensitive imagery. "At eBay, we have a strict policy against hate and discrimination to ensure our platform remains a safe, trusted and inclusive environment for our global community of buyers and sellers," eBay Corporate Communications Specialist Parmita Choudhury said....

In light of newfound censorship of the children's author, some are flocking to eBay, and many purchasers are willing to dole out thousands of dollars to get their hands on what may be the last copies of some of Dr. Seuss's famous books. Following the announcement that Dr. Seuss Enterprises would stop publishing six of his titles due to claims of racist imagery, owners of the books are scoring potentially big sales on online retailers such as eBay and Amazon. One of the books, And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street, is going for $20,000 on the...

I've been an ebay'er since 1998. Never have I encountered so much censoring and blockage from ebay as there is now. I ask the seller for an install manual, iow in pdf form. Ebay blocks my message. Seller wants my email address, ebay blocks. Seller wants to post it in the listing, ebay blocks. There is no way that I can see to learn more about this product and its application for me. So I cannot buy. Any freeper have a suggestion ?

Microsoft Azure just announced a new design for modular, portable data centers. Azure is the company's cloud computing service, used by big names including Boeing, eBay, and Samsung. The Azure Modular Datacenter (MDC) is designed to work just about anywhere, including nontraditional areas where cloud computing previously wouldn't have been possible. Data centers are the "backbone of the Internet," where data and photos from the cloud are physically stored

  BOSTON – Two former employees of eBay, Inc. pleaded guilty today to their roles in a cyberstalking campaign targeting the editor and publisher of a newsletter that eBay executives viewed as critical of the company.            Stephanie Popp, 32, of San Jose, Calif., eBay’s former Senior Manager of Global Intelligence, and Veronica Zea, 26, of San Jose, Calif., a former eBay contractor who worked as an intelligence analyst in eBay’s Global Intelligence Center (GIC), pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses. U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young scheduled sentencing for Feb. 25,...

Two former eBay Inc. employees pleaded guilty Thursday to their roles in a campaign to terrorize a publisher and editor of an online newsletter critical of the company with a scheme that included live spiders and other disturbing deliveries sent to their home. Stephanie Popp, former senior manager of global intelligence; and Veronica Zea, a former eBay contractor who worked as an intelligence analyst in eBay’s Global Intelligence Center, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses. They are scheduled to be sentenced in February. They are among seven former eBay employees charged in the...

They sound like Leftists. They act like Leftists. And now we learn that the Never-Trumper group called “The Lincoln Project” is funded by a Leftist billionaire, according to a new book on the subject. And a collective “Oh, it all makes sense to me now!” just spread over the land. The project features, among others, GOP political strategists Rick Wilson, Steve Schmidt, the Washington Post’s “conservative” columnist Jennifer Rubin, former “Weekly Standard” editor Bill Kristol, and disgruntled attorney, George “Mr. Kellyanne” Conway, who spends nearly all of his time trying to ruin his wife’s White House career. Judging by their...

BOSTON – Six former employees of eBay, Inc. have been charged with leading a cyberstalking campaign targeting the editor and publisher of a newsletter that eBay executives viewed as critical of the company. The alleged harassment included sending the couple anonymous, threatening messages, disturbing deliveries – including a box of live cockroaches, a funeral wreath and a bloody pig mask – and conducting covert surveillance of the victims. James Baugh, 45, of San Jose, Calif., eBay’s former Senior Director of Safety & Security, was arrested today and charged by criminal complaint with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with...

We are continuing to evolve our Offensive Materials Policy to specify that certain items are prohibited. This includes items in the Black Americana category that portray negativity or stereotypes based on race or ethnicity, such as items that use caricatures or demeaning portrayals which may be seen on dolls, figurines, housewares, historical advertisements. We have begun to remove these items. Sellers who have listings for items that are no longer allowed on eBay will be notified through My Messages. Please review our updated policy for additional details. As always, thank you for selling on eBay.

To be clear, based on the complaint unsealed today, eBay executives were not just unhappy about the victims' coverage, they were enraged. One of those executives texted that he wanted to, ‘crush this lady,’” he said. (Snip) Several of the defendants allegedly drove to the victims’ home several times, with Harville and Baugh intending at one point to break into the victims’ garage and install a GPS tracking device on their car, officials said. Federal investigators said the defendants also tried to lie to police about eBay's involvement and pretended to offer the company's assistance with the alleged harassment

BOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Six eBay employees mounted a cyberstalking campaign — including sending boxes of live cockroaches and a Halloween mask of a bloody pig’s face — against a couple who ran an online e-commerce newsletter, according to charges filed by federal prosecutors on Monday. Unhappy with the newsletter’s coverage of eBay, the employees, none of whom now work at the company, barraged the couple with threatening emails and sent disturbing deliveries, including a funeral wreath and a book on how to survive the death of a spouse, said Andrew E. Lelling, the United States attorney for Massachusetts, in a...

Hi BOSTON (CBS) – Six former eBay executives and employees are facing federal charges after they allegedly led a cyberstalking campaign against a Natick couple they believed was critical of the company in an online ecommerce newsletter. U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said the eBay employees’ harassment included sending the couple “disturbing deliveries” that included a bloody pig mask, a box of live cockroaches, and a funeral wreath. The employees also allegedly sent anonymous threatening messages and traveled to Massachusetts to conduct “covert surveillance” of the victims. “It was a determined, systematic effort of senior employees of a major company to...